"America has two great dominant strands of political thought - conservatism,
which, at its very best, draws lines that should not be crossed;
and progressivism, which, at its very best, breaks down barriers that
should never have been erected."
-- Bill Clinton, Dedication of the Clinton Presidential Library, November 2004

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

As the year winds to a close, Liberal Oasis takes stock of how far liberals have come this year -- and the implications for next year. And LO's feeling generous -- even quotes (favorably) (gasp!) Dick Morris.

The gist of LO's argument: Liberals have exerted significant and growing influence within the party since the debacle of Election 2002. The strength of the Dean campaign is but the most obvious evidence of this shift. So a hearty congrats to us all but a word of caution: the ball's in our court now. We need to be ready for our closeup, as it were.

Frankly, all of us who are part of this amazing grassroots campaign need to take this responsibility very seriously...and maybe take some time over the holidays to not only rest but get ready for what promises to be a very challenging year.

Here's an excerpt but be sure to read the whole thing (there's some excellent stuff about Dean in this post, too:

LiberalOasis believes. But you can’t expect those who don’t describe themselves as liberals to automatically trust liberals with the keys.

No one buys the Florida Marlins can beat the New York Yankees, until they actually do it.

So, since we are very likely to be in charge, at least figuratively speaking, it’s time to start acting like it.

The CW assumes (as Dick Morris does) that we are a loony fringe.

We are not, but others will pounce on anything that hints otherwise, as they already do.

That means in our words and our actions, we must always be cognizant that we are always speaking to more than just our fellow liberals.

(snip)

This is...serious business. We should act like it, and look like it.

We are about to be collectively put in the hot seat. Get ready.

Happy Holidays to All! Here's to some well-deserved R&R. See you in January! :-)

Discussion

Archives

Obama 2008 - I want my country back

About Nation-Building

Nation-Building was founded by Aziz Poonawalla in August 2002 under the name Dean Nation. Dean Nation was the very
first weblog devoted to a presidential candidate, Howard Dean, and became the vanguard of the Dean netroot phenomenon, raising
over $40,000 for the Dean campaign, pioneering the use of Meetup, and enjoying the attention of the campaign itself, with Joe Trippi
a regular reader (and sometime commentor). Howard Dean himself even left a comment once. Dean Nation was a group weblog effort and counts
among its alumni many of the progressive blogsphere's leading talent including Jerome Armstrong, Matthew Yglesias, and Ezra Klein. After
the election in 2004, the blog refocused onto the theme of "purple politics",
formally changing its name to Nation-Building in June 2006.
The primary focus of the blog is on articulating
purple-state policy at home and
pragmatic liberal interventionism abroad.